Marathon Mom

My little girl is growing up, I think this last month was packed full of new accomplishments and changes. Her language is growing daily, between verbal and signs she can pretty easily communicate what she wants. Over the past few weeks she started saying some unusual words: turtle, towel, bubble along with some more common words: ball, hat, banana. She also started gymnastics last month and loves it, the perfect place for my monkey to safely climb and jump. We will be continuing this in the Fall, what a great way to tire out the girl with endless energy! I think I'm going to have a girl with two personalities: the tomboy and the girly girl who loves to dress up. She loves getting dirty and playing outside with the neighbor boys but will always pick a dress out to wear! She loves kicking the ball (I hope she doesn't want to play soccer!) and playing in the sand. We had her 18 month appointment on Friday and still tall and thin: 20lb 1oz (5th percentile) and 32.5" (75th p...

The three words that pretty much sum up my last weekend. For the third year I made the annual trip to Sonoma County to coach a team for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon, the biggest difference this year was that I wasn't pregnant or with infant in tow. Ophelia spent her vacation with grandma and grandpa while Matt and I enjoyed 5 days in wine country. At Paradise Ridge Winery We arrived Thursday and hit my favorite chain restaurant, Fresh Choice, which is not available at home and then heading out for a little wine tasting before dinner and more wine. We lucked out with a balcony room making for a nice place to enjoy the evening wine. Things soon got interesting when I realized that I was missing pieces for my breast pump and it had been 16 hours since I nursed Ophelia before our flight. I had originally planned to wean her before the trip but it just didn't happen so I was stuck traveling with the pump yet again. Deciding that neither of us were fit to drive Matt of...

Last year we started what is becoming a new tradition of starting the 4th of July off with a half marathon. It has now been almost a week and I have yet to write a race report, it wasn't a bad race, but it wasn't a wonderful race. Maybe that's why, nothing too exciting and nothing to truly complain about. So here it is short and sweet... Much better weather then last year, well besides the heat but at least no down pours, and I managed to be out of the bathroom line and at the start with time to spare. The gun went off and I off course started too fast at a pace of 7-7:15/ mile. This kept up for the first few miles, but I knew I needed to bank some time with the hills that were coming. I slowed slightly and kept under a 7:20 pace for the first 6 miles and then there was mile 7! The entire mile was uphill, broken into three hills with short flats in between. Somehow managed a 8:15. Nice, now to get back on pace. The next few miles I was running 7:30s and slowly slipping of...

I finally have a day off work so I am determined to get in a decent run, but of course just in time the heat comes. Today I decided to go early to beat the heat, I was wrong! We left the house a little after 8am and about 1/3 mile in passed the bank that read a temperature of 92F, yikes. This with the humidity was crazy hot! Of course I kept going, more worried about Ophelia then myself. I figured she was fine, slathered in sunscreen and sipping her water as we went. This is the one thing she gets from me, constantly carrying a water bottle. We made are normal stop at the play area, which was pretty empty for a change. I think I got warmer just standing in the sun then I was while running. We soon headed home realizing I hadn't seen any other crazy runners yet, a few bikers but no runners. With a couple miles left I finally saw two other runners although no one else crazy enough to be pushing 40+ pounds of stroller, toddler and supplies while doing these miles. I'm happ...

I'm ready to ride! The last time I did a multisport race was 2 Summers ago at this exact race when I was pregnant. Since that race I’ve probably been on my bike (off the trainer) twice, this could be interesting! My goal is to beat my times from the race 2 years ago. Saturday morning I was getting packed for the race and realized I forgot how to plan for biking and anything other then running. This is so much more difficult then just running! Luckily the race is close to home so I had extra time to get everything together. I’m now starting to realize that due to the later race start and my 5:30am breakfast I’m going to be starving before the race starts, I grab a Lara Bar for the car ride and we’re off. We get there with over 1 hour to spare, grab race packets and get bikes in transition with nearly 1 hour until race time. New this year was a Wave start with men starting 3 minutes before women, I make it my goal to catch as many men as I can, including Matt, during the run. Tim...

I am registered for a duathlon on Saturday and the last time I wrote my bike outside was probably this same duathlon 2 years ago. I have a tendency to fall so as my belly grew during my pregnancy I stuck with the safety of the trainer and then last Summer running with an infant was much easier so biking too low priority. This past Winter I finally got consistent on the trainer, but the cold Spring made getting outside easy to push off since I am not a cold weather biker.  Not so sure of this thing on my head!  Ready to go! Since early May my goal has been to bike to work on the weekends, but rain has kept that from happening. Then the past few weeks I've been telling Matt we needed to get out and once again there was rain. Finally last night I put on my bike pants, yes pants in June, and decided I'd brave the winds and temps of 50. After 3 days in a row on the trainer it would be nice to get outside, but I was still nervous. I really only needed this ride to remind my...

Yep, we've hit this developmental stage, yuck! In a way we've lucked out because my mom is the primary babysitter so that transition was easy but no one else has watched Ophelia for extended periods of time which we are now paying for. This all started last week at the gym, we got to the childcare center and as I tried to leave I had a toddler attached to my legs repeating "mama". I managed to get out and she did fine until the last few minutes when all the babies started crying so she joined the chorus just in time for me to return. Yesterday we had a repeat performance of the drop off scenario at the gym and when I returned I found her sitting on a staff woman's lap with tears. This doesn't make for a nice workout knowing your child is cursing you out in her toddler way when you leave. Today I meet with my trainer so hoping for a better drop off. Earlier this week I made the mistake of coming home during a work day to grab a change of clothes and head out ...